dev update - Laundry Day hairstyles

Hey everyone, it's time for a look at the new hairstyles coming in Laundry Day Stuff, as well as sharing info about our process of selecting and creating hairstyles.

Similar to the clothing and objects that you selected via votes earlier in this project, hairstyles are something that we create concept art of here in our studio, which is then handed off to external partners for creation of the final asset. If you'd like to learn more about that specific process, I'd recommend this post which details our workflow for objects. Some of you have asked why hairstyles weren't part of the votes that took place. Ultimately, there were two reasons why they weren't included in the voting process...

First, it's important to note that hairstyles are typically the most time consuming assets that we work with external partners to create. The process starts with gathering photo reference of different people wearing the hairstyle that we're creating, so that we have a variety of examples of what that hairstyle can look like. From there our artists will draw their own interpretation of the hairstyle superimposed over a bald Sim. They create two versions of these drawings - one which is opaque, which demonstrates what the final material should look like, and the other which is transparent, so that the modeler has a clear example of the shape and volume of the hairstyle in comparison to the position of the Sim's head. Throughout this time, revisions are made based on feedback shared by our art director. While this process isn't all that different from other assets, the amount of detail in each hairstyle means that these assets simply take longer to create than objects and clothing. This ends up impacting our development schedule; we tend to lock in our hair selections prior to the objects and clothing, so that our artists and external partners have more time to work on them. Looking back at the votes we held for this project, not only did that mean that we couldn't wait to include these alongside the objects/clothing vote, but we didn't even have enough spare time to hold a separate hairstyle vote. Essentially, the moment we had the results of our art style vote, we had to immediately start working on the hairstyles. This was the one hurdle in this project where we couldn't figure out a way to include a hairstyle vote without delaying the milestones in our development schedule.

Here's a look at some of the feedback that was shared for the Laundry Day hairstyles. Here you see the hairstyles earlier in the process, where the drawings are a bit rougher, and adjustments are still being made. Try spotting the differences between these and the final images down below

The second reason we didn't vote on hairstyles centers around a philosophical question of what we were trying to accomplish with this project. All of the votes you participated in for this project were intended to mimic the same development process that we follow internally. Each vote was based on the group discussions we have to select assets or features for a pack. But when it comes to hairstyles, they're typically selected by the pack's Art Director without a lot of outside input. Our art directors have collected a treasure trove of reference material of various hairstyles that we could include in the game someday, and with each pack that comes along they choose a few from this collection they've amassed. This allowed them to make decisions immediately following the art style vote, and already have ideas in place that they could act upon. Because selecting hair styles isn't really a thing we make consensus decisions about, it made less sense to hold a vote for it, so as to more accurately represent our development process.

With all that said, here are the final concept drawings we shared with our external partners so that these hairstyles could come to life in-game. You'll note the opaque and transparent views that I mentioned earlier, as well as the color variants for one of the hairstyles. To see how they actually turned out in-game, stay tuned for Laundry Day's full reveal... in the meantime, you can get a sneak peak of how they look in this season's quarterly teaser!

Interesting that you mention the "external partners".
I know asset creation is a thing that you guys have been (partially) outsourcing for longer, but I wonder in how much it contributes to certain stylistic inconsistencies I've noticed. In both TS3 and TS4 I've seen significant differences in asset quality and art style between different packs.

The quality of the hair recently has been fantastic. Kudos to those who are choosing the styles and the textures. I'd love an entire stuff pack dedicated to CAS items - as I, personally, never feel like we have enough hair options.

I see the one with the headband lost its bun and ended up with a bit of a curly hair medium long falling in the back of the head. Am I right ? Anyway, it looks pretty. And it's true that the quality of the hair gets better with each new set.

I have to fallow @zubrowkas, I'd love an entire stuff pack of CAS items.

They are beautiful nonetheless, however there's a sizable community who don't have straight hair and would love representation. If every pack has straight hair could you please implement at least one wavy, braided, dreaded or curly hair? Either of the mentioned would be appreciated by the masses of people black white and in between with hair that isn't straight.

The hair looks great I was wondering if going forward we were able to choose the color of clips, ribbons etc. I like to match hair accessories to the clothing. I hate how I have to choose the clothing to match the hair accessory.

Just to be clear, I would like my sim to be able to wear a black hair clip no matter what color her hair is.

I kind of like how hairs are getting more textured lately. It was a bit boring how flat the base game hairs are. I've always wondered why throughout the years why are female hairs the focus when it comes to hairs? Is there any chance hairs can get more swatches like a real purple and a real white? Like how do you decide which swatches to use and how many hairstyles for each age and gender? I really like the ombre swatches used in packs you have worked on Graham. Always nice to have more color in my Sims' lives.

"The Sneetches got really quite smart on that day. The day they decided that Sneetches are Sneetches. And no kind of Sneetch is the best on the beaches. That day, all the Sneetches forgot about stars and whether they had one, or not, upon thars." -Dr. Seuss

@Loriewhite if they did realistic looking hairstyles like that it wouldn't go together with TS4's art style.
Tho I also wish that they would do longer and more wavy/curly type of hairstyles. The ones that came with C&D were great but I wish we had even longer hairstyles too.

The hair looks great I was wondering if going forward we were able to choose the color of clips, ribbons etc. I like to match hair accessories to the clothing. I hate how I have to choose the clothing to make the hair accessory.

Just to be clear, I would like my sim to be able to wear a black hair clip no matter what color her hair is.

Oh, I agree with that. I love that TS4 hair are compatible with hats, but if we also could change colour of accesories, it'd be perfect.

> @GrijzePilion said:
> Interesting that you mention the "external partners".
> I know asset creation is a thing that you guys have been (partially) outsourcing for longer, but I wonder in how much it contributes to certain stylistic inconsistencies I've noticed. In both TS3 and TS4 I've seen significant differences in asset quality and art style between different packs.

That's prolly also why a lot of packs come with new wood types that don't match with any of the other ones. I hope they'll patch in some of those wood types on other existing pieces. Like for instance, I LOVE the new wood types that came with Cats and Dogs, but when trying to match that furniture with other wooden pieces from other packs, I find it hard to make it look like it's bought together other than it all looking like it came from flea markets.

I do LOVE these hairs, especially the male hair is more than welcome in my game, also love the use of that hair clip, as I don't remember any of the other packs having one of those clips.

Glad you explained why there wasn't a vote on hairstyles, it's actually always interesting to read a little more about how the design process looks and how things are implemented in game
I'm a very big fan of the two feminine styles but the third brushed back one looks a bit too familiar to existing assets so I'm not really too keen. Shame there's nothing for kids but I guess this is a laundry pack so I wasn't really expecting anything anyway.
Great job on details in this pack though, I like how the clipped back and pin up hair looks. MASSIVE improvement since base game, keep it up!

The hair looks great I was wondering if going forward we were able to choose the color of clips, ribbons etc. I like to match hair accessories to the clothing. I hate how I have to choose the clothing to make the hair accessory.

Just to be clear, I would like my sim to be able to wear a black hair clip no matter what color her hair is.

Oh, I agree with that. I love that TS4 hair are compatible with hats, but if we also could change colour of accesories, it'd be perfect.

There is actually a lot of Maxis Match CC that have more realistic looking hairs too. I think people want hairstyles that reflect their own more and in some cases there are colors they have or textures or lengths that they have that aren't represented in the game yet. Like when SimGuruDrake has her cool purple hair, you just can't get that deep rich purple in the game yet without the help of CC or making your own swatches. I'm all for more options in the Sims.

"The Sneetches got really quite smart on that day. The day they decided that Sneetches are Sneetches. And no kind of Sneetch is the best on the beaches. That day, all the Sneetches forgot about stars and whether they had one, or not, upon thars." -Dr. Seuss